Workers in a quarry create new British mountain by ACCIDENT… after dumping tons of waste on existing hill
- Map-maker said a piece of high ground at quarry qualifies for mountain status
- Peak was eroded by quarrying but resulted in formation of new, lower peak
- Workers dumped thousands of tons of waste on hill, raising its height
- The new mountain should be added to ‘Welsh Highlands’ list: surveyor
Quarry workers have accidentally created a new British mountain by dumping more than a thousand tons of waste rock on an existing hill.
Myrddyn Phillips, a map-maker and surveyor, said a piece of high ground at a quarry in North Wales now qualifies for mountain status.
A peak called Manod Mawr North Top has been eroded by quarrying, but resulted in the formation of a second, slightly lower peak.
According to Mr Phillips, who has spent 20 years surveying peaks to judge if they qualify for mountain status, the new mountain near Blaenau Ffestiniog should be added to his list of ‘Welsh Highlands’.
Picturesque Manod Mawr peak in North Wales is the site of the new man-made mountain
He defines the Welsh Highlands as hills in Wales that are more than 2,000ft high with a 49ft drop to the col – the saddle or ridge between two peaks.
Mr Phillips said it was the first time since the list was launched in 2004 that a peak had been upgraded to mountain status because of human intervention.
The surveyor, from Welshpool, said: ‘The mountain was first spotted on an online map by a colleague – I was intrigued and needed to see this unusual peak myself.
‘I was looking for the vertical height gain between the col and the summit. It had once been relatively flat as it connected to the Manod Mawr North Top. By quarrying that ridge, they have created a brand new peak.’
Mr Phillips previously hit the headlines in 2019 when he concluded that a street in Harlech, north-west Wales was the steepest in the world – only to lose the title to New Zealand city Dunedin the following year.
He said he hoped Wales’s new mountain would inspire people to explore their local peaks – despite the latest edition to the ‘Welsh Highlands’ being on private ground.
‘Since I have taken up surveying, the areas it has taken me to is fantastic. You see places you otherwise would never have discovered – some of them are so beautiful,’ he said.
Glyder Fawr in Snowdonia was redefined as a ‘super mountain’ in 2010 after surveyors found it was 1,000 metres high – not its previous measurement of 999 metres.
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